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IN TRANSIT; MUMBAI: EXTRA, EXTRA

By ABBY RABINOWITZ

Published: May 2, 2010

Being a star in a big Bollywood production takes lots of training. But if all you want is to be an extra, join the tourist crowds on Colaba Causeway, at popular spots like Leopold Cafe or Cafe Mondegar.

More likely than not, you'll be approached by a casting agent with an offer that might sound something like this: an all-expenses-paid day on a movie set, payment of about 500 rupees (about $11.50, at 43 rupees to the dollar) and a chance to share the screen with stars like Shahrukh Khan.

The good news is that most of these agents are, in fact, agents and not scam artists - just use some common sense - but there are a few caveats. First, you probably won't get cast if you're Indian. One agent explained that filmmakers are perpetually short on ''Western looking'' folks for crowd scenes, citing a recent shoot that hired 136 foreign extras to fill an Istanbul nightclub. Second, he pointed out that a day on the set is often far from glamorous: ''Extras are essentially human props,'' he said.

Bruce Wiener, an American who capped off a family holiday with a day on the set of a Bollywood remake of ''Stepmom,'' described hours of aimless waiting followed by a brief stint sitting in a school auditorium far from the camera's lens. ''They never asked us to dance,'' he said.

So why be an extra at all? Some backpackers and students do it for the cash, but most extras are tourists curious to see the mad world of a Bollywood film in the making - the bustling crew, the glittery stars and the screaming fans.

Cristiana Peruzzo, an Italian expatriate living in Mumbai, has been an extra four times, most recently playing roulette on the set of that faux Istanbul nightclub. ''I love my life,'' she said. ''But for a couple of hours, I got to pretend to be this high-flying European. I felt like I was in 'Casablanca'.''

This is a more complete version of the story than the one that appeared in print.

PHOTO (PHOTOGRAPH BY YASH RAJ FILMS)

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